‘No turfs at CBK under my watch’ declares Nyaoga

June 16, 2015

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Nyaoga said he would resign from the boards of Ecobank and Telkom Kenya in which he is a member in order to avoid a conflict of interest.

By LABAN WANAMBISI, NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 16 – Central Bank of Kenya Board chairman nominee Mohammed Nyaoga has dismissed reports of a turf war between the Board and the Governor in the economic policy organ.

He told the House Committee on Finance that despite recent changes which give the Board some of the Governor’s wide influence on the economy, he intends to harness a professional relationship with the management arm of monetary policy.

“I don’t think we will have issues of conflict, I have seen in the media they are talking about turf wars; I am very clear that there is only one turf, that turf is Central Bank and we must always keep the interest of the Bank at the fore. It’s the primary interest that we must serve not personal egos, not people trying to curve territories for themselves,” Nyaoga told the Finance and Trade Committee.

Nyaoga noted that the bank’s structure provided for a dual board similar to those in the UK and Germany, where there is a governance wing headed by the chairman and the technical – the Monetary Policy Committee – which deals with the technical aspects of the economic and monetary policy.

“The work of enforcing and supervising banks is left to management and the policy is uniform. I am not going to alter the policy, I am not going to amend the policy to favour anybody,” he said.

Nyaoga said he would resign from the boards of Ecobank and Telkom Kenya in which he is a member in order to avoid a conflict of interest and to also allow him time to concentrate on his new rigorous appointment.

The seasoned lawyer told MPs that if given the CBK chairman’s job, he would help banks increase their reach especially to the unbanked population.

He said he would help streamline implementation of the Capital Gains Tax without elaborating on the details.

In his submissions, Nyaoga said the weakening of the shilling lower than the 90 level to the American currency has been driven by the global strengthening of the dollar.

He said the weakening of the local currency is not an isolated case, noting that most other currencies both in Africa and globally have depreciated in recent months due to a very strong dollar.

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LABAN WANAMBISI Laban Wanambisi is a Parliamentary and Political reporter. He joined the Capital Newsteam in 2005. Since then, he has reported on many of the major news events over the years including his first major